Spit 2 Da Beat Podcast
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Spit 2 Da Beat Podcast
Global Dance Diaries: Chanel Tootie Williams, Adventures in Movement and Mentorship.
What if immersing yourself in a new culture each month could transform your life? Our latest episode of Spit to the Beat Podcast features an inspiring chat with our adventurous guest, who has turned "dating countries" into a global mentorship phenomenon. From savoring authentic Moroccan dishes to mastering traditional Greek dances, she shares how her international journey began after a life-changing moment and how she skillfully juggles professional commitments while exploring the world.
Our guest is not just a traveler but a passionate dance instructor who brings joy and empowerment to communities worldwide. Listen as she recounts her memorable experiences teaching dance classes in places like Portugal and Madrid, emphasizing the importance of finding local communities and faith-based connections. Celebrating the success of her sold-out international dance classes, we dive into her unique approach to teaching heels dance, focusing on confidence and empowerment.
Finally, we explore different teaching methods and class structures between Madrid and the United States, and discuss the excitement of U.S. dancers preparing for an international program in London. Our guest's vision of expanding her dance initiative to universities and adult dancers globally offers a glimpse into the future of dance education. She even teases the possibility of a future book capturing her incredible journey. Tune in to be inspired by her vibrant international lifestyle and dedication to empowering others through dance.
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Thank you. So attention, spit to the beat. Nobody do it better. Welcome to Spit to the Beat Podcast. I'm your host, stacy B, unstoppable Perrier. We are back in the studio 2024. Thank you once again to all my sponsors as well as my listeners. Continue to keep listening to the show. The broadcast come on every Thursday with a new episode at 8 am Central Standard Time. You can catch me at wwwspittothebeatpodcastcom or you can go on and hear our audio podcast as well on Buzzsprout. Thank you so much for joining me today on this show. We've got a very special guest. This is really our part two of our conversation. The first conversation took place right here in America, but now she has gone international and I'm going to bring her on and let her introduce herself. Took place right here in America, but now she has gone international and I'm going to bring her on and let her introduce herself on Spit to the Beat podcast. Hey, hey, what's going?
Speaker 2:on. Hi, hey everybody, welcome to the show. Thank you, thank you, so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:Great, great great. I know, like I just said earlier, we was in America. Right, you was in America with me, I know, I know Releasing my book Now, it's a whole other venture. Yes, yes, so we're going to jump right on into that thing because you know now you are abroad, international, doing your thing and making it happen. Manifestation of what we talked about in our last conversation. And now it has come full circle. You're doing big, major things. Let's talk about what's going on in Dance 2 world.
Speaker 2:That's so crazy. So technically I have not moved quite yet I am doing. What I would like to say is dating countries. So I am taking one country a month at a time, seeing what it's like to live there, to be a local, to taste their foods, try their culture, their dances. Yeah, it's just, it's kind of like slow traveling but in a sense of submerging myself more than anything.
Speaker 3:You started this journey back when.
Speaker 2:I left the U? S on May 1st. Okay, I was like I don't want to.
Speaker 3:I don't want to wait till the US on May 1st. Okay, I was like I don't want to wait till the weekend.
Speaker 2:I don't want to wait till summer. May 1st I'm out.
Speaker 3:There was a particular goal deadline date to go to Travel International, or just May 1st, was set in stone.
Speaker 2:No, I've. I wanted to leave in april okay, I wanted to leave. In april I actually got a word from god that I could release everything and go. Um, this was march 6th, because I totaled my car on march 1st. So I was like bet, well, I don't want to pay no more rent here, I'm going to have no more United States, nothing. I'm ready to go now. But that just wouldn't have been like a good. That wouldn't have been a good way to steward the relationships he had already given me.
Speaker 2:Because I was teaching at a studio, I had mentees in three different cities. I had just a lot of things going on, and then, too, I went to see my family and spend time with people before I just left for six months. So May 1st was like okay, that's the start of a new month, and then that way it's easy to kind of keep up with what country I'm in, or if I'm in a different country, because because at the top of every month I'm going to a new country.
Speaker 3:Right right.
Speaker 2:It was just easier to keep up with.
Speaker 3:So the plan was to tour different parts of the country while you was over there. What was the concept of doing it? I mean, what was the goal behind it?
Speaker 2:of doing it. I mean, what? What was the goal behind it? The goal is to find a new home, because I've always wanted to live overseas. I've always, well, since I studied abroad in college, I wanted to have well, I'm working on having a dance abroad program, and I didn't know that it would happen through this way. But it's just funny how God works. And so the goal has been more so to just explore and release and just figure out what life is like in a different part of the world, and also to, at the same time, venturing to see where I can put my mentorship program and build my baby up to a scalable corporation.
Speaker 3:I think you're doing an amazing thing because you're traveling abroad, you're taking what you're speaking into your life seriously and you're making it happen with the help of God. With that being said, I want to just step back just a little bit. I want to talk about the food culture. I know you miss the good soul food dinner, so tell us.
Speaker 2:So tell us about the food. Oh my gosh, I just want to say when I come home, mama, I need the turkey necks, the mac and cheese, the candy yams, the greens. I need the turkey knicks, the mac and cheese, the candy yams, the greens, I need the whole spread. So the food has definitely been good. It has definitely been healthier. It has been lighter. I rarely ever feel like I eat and get sleepy immediately or feel lazy. Most of the time at the grocery stores the food is vegan, Like some stuff I pick up don't even know it's vegan. Until I get home and look at it I'm like, oh cool, this is vegan, you know so it's not. It's like, oh, this is a vegan section. It's just like this is the, this is the way of the land. The best food I've had so far has been in Morocco.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Their food, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:It was spicy.
Speaker 2:It had a little kick, but not as like, not like an Indian type of spice, but more so just flavorful, like very seasoned, very well, and just the different. You can tell it's a lot of different, um, I guess you would say like seasonings and broths and you know, it's just a lot of different ingredients coming together to make really good cuisines. And yeah, that food, yeah, that food is really good and theirs have been my favorite cool, cool, look.
Speaker 3:Let's jump right on into this other part too. I know the our entertainment uh lifestyle over there for you, dealing with their culture, coming into their entertainment and knowing you already from the united States and your culture of entertainment. How has they influenced you or what have you seen so different from what you always experience?
Speaker 2:When you say entertainment, what do you mean by entertainment?
Speaker 3:More like how they entertain through shows, through musicals or dancing or things like that.
Speaker 2:Oddly enough and I think it's because it's the summertime I've been to a lot of jazz festivals.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Like every country I've been to, have had different festivals and like concerts and stuff outside and, like a lot of the restaurants have outside seating, you rarely see people sitting inside. So that's definitely been kind of like a like a not a culture shock, but something I've been grateful for, which has been really cool. What else? I'm a foodie, so I just eat a lot. I don't really do. I don't really do too much. The places I've been have just been a lot. Oh, it's been a lot of live music where people are just placed in like metro stations, different parks, different like sightseeing venues where they're not like booked for it, but they just do their own individual acts, which have been pretty cool, because I love live music. Um, what else?
Speaker 3:so I know you get out and tour the city. Each city that you go to right it's something different. How has the people embraced you? As far as you know those who may know of you being coming from America and you bringing the dance community.
Speaker 2:The dance community.
Speaker 3:Yeah To to the another world. So how? How has that been?
Speaker 2:That has. Every place has been different. When I went to Portugal, like they were cool and they were pretty accommodating. But some people like have this, some people have this preconception of how America is some are like wow America, and some are like oh okay, you know.
Speaker 2:So it kind of varies with how I'm welcomed, but for the dance community, america is so respected and and seen as such a place of opportunities that I'm like y'all, we go through some of the same struggles y'all go through, like y'all having a hard time booking at certain rates. We have hard time booking at certain rates too, like it just kind of varies, um, but as far as like Madrid was probably the one place that was not too fond of me being American. I don't know if it was like a Black American thing or just American thing, but they just they were different they were different every other place has been really good, really um, accommodating, and especially like the churches.
Speaker 2:I I find a church in every country, so finding the church home and, like them, having an international or global respect or just a welcoming spirit, has definitely helped me to submerge myself in each country, like it helps me to become a part of a community and not feel so alone. So that, plus the dance, that's pretty, that's pretty good okay, cool.
Speaker 3:Hey, hold tight, I'm taking a little short break. I'm gonna come back. I want to talk about your first sold out uh dance session. Okay, cool, you yeah why, not Cool.
Speaker 1:You're listening to Spit, to the Beat Podcast with your host, the one, the only Stacey B, unstoppable Per Year.
Speaker 3:Hey, this is Stacey aka B Unstoppable Per Year with Spit to the Beat Podcast. Would you like to be my guest? If you're a singer, songwriter, musician, producer or promoter, give me a call at 901-341-6777 or email me at myguestatspitstothebeatcom. What's up, good people? This your man Comedian A-Train, and I want you to keep it locked right here on Spit to the Beat Podcast. And welcome back to Spit to the Beat podcast. I'm your host, stacey B Unstoppable Prairie, and I'm joined gracefully in my studio all the way across the waters over in Greece. My favorite niece, but her profession I ain't. Sinead Toot Williams. Yeah, hey, welcome back, welcome back.
Speaker 2:I forgot how to say hello in Greek you learn any more language over there. I've been really dedicated to Spanish. I've been on Duolingo every day for like 60 days.
Speaker 3:Cool Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So there's been a trying situation. You've been able to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just want to thank God for Google Translate, because when I was in Bulgaria and now that I'm in Greece, they have a different alphabet, so most of the stuff I can't read at all, so I just take a picture and then it translates it for me and it makes it 10 times easier. So, yeah, we're adjusting.
Speaker 3:Hey, technology is amazing.
Speaker 2:Man so good.
Speaker 3:Let's go back and talk about what we left off your sold out dance teaching session that you had. You posted it on social media. We were super excited to see it and hear about it, so how did you feel about that? Let's go back to them receiving you as an instructor and want to learn from you and what you're bringing to their dance culture, versus what they're trying to, you know, bring to you. How was that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, they were amazing. I am super, super, super grateful to have sold out my first international class. And the thing about heels heels is now global but everybody has their own style and everybody has their own interpretation of what that is. But I feel like heels at one point went into a. It started off being about empowerment and then it went off into let me prove how sexy I can be and what I can do in the bedroom and stuff like that. So it just kind of got lost. So my goal for them was to tap back into just the essence of a woman what is light, to really move your body and feel confident and feel worthy of these things. And so, just down to the song choices that from the time I walked in and hugging everybody, they were, yeah, they.
Speaker 2:By the time we left, everybody was hugging me and just standing around to talk and I was like y'all, it's getting late, it's like we have to go, and one of the girls was like this felt like art, like we don't usually get classes like this, especially with heels, and I've noticed from taking heels classes in different countries, everybody choreographs so fast. It's so this, this is this, and I'm like I just want to feel sexy and sensual and you're not powerful. Why are we moving so fast? So I knew that my pocket was gonna be different, my choreo was gonna have a different feel and they definitely they was like we want you back when you coming back and I'm like it will be soon, definitely so we're leading up to, uh, your amazing program you call star power, correct?
Speaker 3:yes, so we're leading you, traveling from city to city, a portion of the country to country, going to the final destination. What month? What are we, what can we expect and when would it happen?
Speaker 2:so the final destination will? I don't want to say final, because I really feel like I'm going to come home, but then I'm going to leave back out. I just want to, okay so the pause the. The final stop of this run is going to be october in london.
Speaker 2:Um, my mentorship program, star power, will be there, uh, for 10 days training with professional choreographers, with with the uk dancers and, um, just experiencing the culture. A lot of times, as, as performers, we're on artists, we're on musical artist schedule or we're on, we're in and out, we never really get to do our own thing. So the goal of this is to be a dance abroad, like how a study abroad program is in different universities is for dancers, where we get to train and see how other dancers train. How do you guys teach? How do you have class? Because the way I had class in Madrid, every class was only an hour. Coming from the US, we have class that's at least 75 to 90 minutes, so that means really that class was only about 45 minutes because you still have people transitioning and stretching. Can you catch a choreo that fast? Can you learn? Can you spit it back out? So every place is different and I want them to experience that.
Speaker 3:I want them to know what that's like so how do the uh, the dance culture over there, how are they super excited about your star power program that you're you're having over there. You brought it all the way from america over to to greece and uh, and are they excited about being a part of it?
Speaker 2:who the people here or? Yes, the people there oh, the people here in greece don't even know about it yet. I just got to greece last wednesday. So we're approaching a week, um, and typically I mentioned the program uh, mainly to like the studio owners and to some dancers in different countries. Uh, but not until I actually get to London will it be something that I'm actually publicly, um, like publicizing? Yeah, yeah promoting and stuff um, because I would want them to actually uh, be in some of the classes with the united states dancers.
Speaker 3:So right now I have a part. Will they have a long way to travel to london? Who, the, the country that's over there, the, the dancers over there? Would they have a long way to travel to? Where you having the uh star power program?
Speaker 2:uh, london, from here or from the places I've been, is a probably about a five hour flight for most places, but, um, I'm not sure I would have to look into that. But for the most part the dancers that are going to be in the london program are all, uh, american dancers. So they're coming from, um, they're coming from la vegas, atlanta, nashville, memphis, like all over the states, and then they'll meet me in London to do the experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to jump right on to that. That was leading into my next question, cause I know we was talking about the dancers in the foreign country. But how excited are the dancers from the United States to become, to come and be a part of this amazing program? Now it's international. How does that feel?
Speaker 2:Man, that's wow, god is faithful, god is so faithful. They are excited. I have some that have never been out of the country before, so they're, you know, applying for their passports and, you know, asking questions. And I have some who, like, I've only been out of town with friends and they don't dance, so now they get to experience just something totally, totally new. So I, even if they're not excited, I am thrilled. I am over the moon because I'm like this is something I've dreamed of for 10 years. You know, and you never.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you don't see how God is making the steps land to this destination, but he's so strategic and so genius that it's like, wow, now we're fine, now we're here. Like, now we're here. And now that we're here, we're here. It's like, okay, dream bigger, go bigger. And so I'm like, yeah, well, let's move to the next step, because I actually want this to be something that dancers in different universities and schools experience. So we'll have a collegiate uh department. We'll also have an adult department that's outside of schools. Because what if you don't want to? You know, like, if you're just pursuing dance professionally, I think you should still be able to take advantage of the opportunities of doing that somewhere else. People get books everywhere, movies get created everywhere. Commercials are shot everywhere. There's dance community around the entire world. You don't have to just be in the United States. There's a dance community around the entire world.
Speaker 3:You don't have to just be in the United States period. Yes, exactly, I see, and I'm speaking this to exist. You probably already working on it, but I do see a book coming out of this. Over 10 years experience, your testimony, your travel your your history behind dance and your influence. I see a major book coming out of this. What about you?
Speaker 2:Hey, we receive it. We receive it. I've already said I'm a New York Times bestseller. I don't know what book it's going to be for, but I see it and receive it, that when it's time, it will be revealed to me, and it's going to be just that. So I see multiple books. I see multiple books, for sure.
Speaker 3:Amazing, great, great. Last question what do you expect to get out of this? I mean, you got dancers international and you got dancers coming from America. What does dance to expectation and what do you want to receive from this going forward?
Speaker 2:That is a great question. Going forward, I want to see me tapping into everything I can that God has given me to keep up this lifestyle. Like I said, I want to come back home for a visit and I want to leave back out because there's so much more world to see, and the thing about being exposed to different cultures and different lifestyles is that you start to dream bigger and you start to be like no, I'd rather have this. And then you start to get creative on how to keep and maintain and thrive in it. So I'm just open to see how God is going to make everything come full circle. But as far as me and my expectations, I want to not go back to the life I had. I wish I still had a good life, but this one's better and I like this one more. For me, I like this one more Levels after levels.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just, it's so much and there's so much world out here and I don't want to miss out on anything. I want to meet dancers from all over the world. I want to learn bachata and salsa and flamenco and just all the beautiful things as much as I can.
Speaker 3:Well, there you have it, world Chanel Toot, we'll dance too. There you have it, world Chanel Toot.
Speaker 1:Williams Dance Toot as they call her.
Speaker 3:Look, last question, last thing how can people? First of all, let me say this when you do the Start Proud program, will it be live, where people can watch it from all over the world? And two, where people can find you on social media right now.
Speaker 2:Will it be live. Not every moment, but you should definitely follow our Instagram, which is at StarPowerMSP. You should definitely follow that because we're going to have a dancer taking over the Instagram every day. We have a lot of social media secret things that's going to happen so that you can feel a part of the journey with us and maybe in some of the classes, but it just varies and depends as far as myself. You can follow me on Instagram, tiktok, and subscribe to my YouTube at dance underscore T-O-O-T. And just to be clear, if you need some dance lessons or some virtuals or some privates or some choreography, I am available virtually.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So book me so I can keep this life going. Amen, amen.
Speaker 3:There you go. When you put it out there like that, hey, you can't do nothing, but help get the response that you are projecting, because once you put it out there like that, hey, you can't do nothing, but help get the response that you are projecting, because once you put it in the atmosphere, it will happen, it will come back to you thank you so much for having me and thank you for allowing me to talk about my journey most definitely.
Speaker 3:I'm glad to get this part too, and I'm super excited for you. I want you to have an amazing opportunity shows and meet people that you need to meet. I'm glad to get this part two in. I'm super excited for you. I want you to have an amazing opportunity shows and meet people that you need to meet. Whoever God need to put in your place and your path, that all of that happens so you can live this wonderful life.
Speaker 2:Amen amen.
Speaker 3:Hold tight as I close out the show. Okay.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to Spit to the Beat podcast. Want to know how you can help Be a sponsor by going to our website at wwwspittothebeatpodcastcom and click the support tab. You can also join us each and every week live at YouTube at Spit to the Beat. Don't forget to subscribe, like and follow. Thank you for your support.
Speaker 3:Thank you for watching Spit to the Beat Podcast. Join us again next week for another live broadcast on Spit to the Beat Podcast.
